


Sunrises and Secrets

by DestinyFreeReally



Series: 100 Swan Queen Ficlets [14]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-04
Updated: 2016-11-04
Packaged: 2018-08-29 00:38:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8469103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DestinyFreeReally/pseuds/DestinyFreeReally
Summary: After they know about the visions, Emma isn't sure it helps.





	

     Regina couldn't sleep. 4 am on the clock, and her eyes were wide open, body urging her to get up. Poking her head in her son's room, instinct, he was mumbling and uneasy but asleep still. Unable to stop herself, she covered him with the blanket, smoothing hair from forehead- he was older, but face twisted up with sleep he looked an awful lot like her baby. Stifling a sigh, she left him noiselessly and made her way to the kitchen. 

     Spanish coffee brewed strong as ever, with an indulgent drop of cream, the first steps onto the back porch were chilly- April was ending bitterly, especially at 4:30 am, dawn barely beginning to peek through night, but distracting from the chill is Emma Swan, not far off from the house, wandering through the wood. 

     "Emma?" Regina saw Emma jump- she'd hardly ever gotten the jump on her before- and waved her in. "Never quite pegged you for the early riser." Regina's tone's soft in the morning, and that's apparently relieving to Emma, who's still smiling awkwardly and uneasily through the house's porch door.

     "Haven't exactly been sleeping well." Shrugging blonde hair back behind her ears, Emma isn't sure if she can apologize to anyone else. Especially before five am. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the visions- I know you knew something was off I- plus with you not being in them I... I just don't really know what it means."

    Emma's apologetic half smile is as confusing as it is unsure, and Regina wanted to explain that she was trying not to focus on not being in Emma's dream like the bad thing it felt like.

     "Its okay, Emma. Does it help?" Is what jumps out of her mouth, and Regina catches Emma's blink of refocus as she hands her a mug of warmed apple cider. "To talk about them, does it help?"

     "Um, maybe?" Emma was frustrated with herself, even the tiny, amber her reflected in the cider. "Not so much in the big, wide way everyone wants it to, but yeah. Yeah maybe it helps."

     A sympathy passed through Regina, deep and sorrowful, and brushing Emma's arm seemed to placate it, if uncomfortably. 

     "I'm sorry my...I'm sorry she did that to you." Regina's mouth twitched tight, and breaking the touch she faced the big porch window. A doe, grazing lazily some ways off caught her eye, and she thought about it hard to keep from thinking about the accusatory tone in all their voices about Emma's visions. Regina could recognize accusation, indignation, especially in the Charmings; and she figured Emma could, too.

     "How's Henry?" Emma's throat was dry to ask.

     But the question has Regina's attention turned back to Emma, with an easier countenance and brows unknit.

     "He's...dealing, I suppose." Regina thought about it, about the sleep mumbling and all the questions he was scared to ask. "He's worried, we all are- but he knows we won't let anything happen to you."

     The sentiment earnest, not for the first time the thought crosses her mind that maybe she dies protecting Emma Swan. That maybe she's not in the vision because she's no longer alive. 

     She certainly wouldn't let Henry lose both of his parents; they'd stopped being that selfish long ago.

     "You...could stay for pancakes, you know. I know Henry would love you to." She'd meant to say that already, from the beginning, that Emma was welcome to stay. 

     For a second, Emma contemplates, words on her tongue like _inconvenience_. Pancakes with her son and his other mother, her friend, could always spark her interest. Plus it would be the perfect excuse, _if_ she needed one, as to why she left the house so early today.

     "I'd really love to. Thanks, Regina."

     Regina hears it entirely too emphatic to be about pancakes, even for Emma Swan. 

     "You can always...stop by." _If you need a break,_ Regina doesn't continue. Saying the words might make Emma guilty, Regina reminds herself, and Emma's eyes look decidedly too sorry already. "The view of the sunrise is always exquisite from here. I always mean to get up earlier more often. Usually, though..."

    "Pesky beauty sleep gets in the way?" Emma smiled, a little more easily, hazy golds and pinks starting to light the house. Its a moment she's not worried about shaking, or dying, or worrying anyone else, and she really wants to cling to it as long as Regina will let her. 


End file.
